by anderson
I know. It's not something one expects to see here at Newshoggers. Indeed, this praising of Bush seems to be breaking out in various circles. But, as readers here might expect, there is a twist in the praise: faint damning.
It turns out that George Bush, who passionately pursued his administration's policy path, saved Canadian Hockey! Hooray. Canuck teams were hurting when the loonie hovered around 62�. Players wanted to be paid and were paid in US dollars, and it was killing the books of Canadian teams.
But that was then.
And this is now.
The decline of the American dollar has led to a trade imbalance north of the border, on the rinks of the National Hockey League.
Over the past two decades, the Canadian teams in the N.H.L. were considered poor cousins of their colleagues in the United States. Some floundered financially, others packed up and moved south. The league even created the Canadian Assistance Program to subsidize the country�s struggling teams.
But the landscape in Canada has changed drastically, because of a rise of more than 50 percent in the Canadian dollar since 2002. A stronger currency has made it cheaper for the six Canadian teams to pay their players in United States dollars and to reduce debts. It has also inflated the revenue of the six Canadian franchises and, in turn, the league�s revenue. That has hurt some of the weaker teams in the United States by pushing up the minimum amount teams must spend on payroll.
Thanks, George!*
* Suspicions abound that Bush is secretly a fierce fan of Les Habitants, which of course, he will not admit publicly.
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